Just had this report in from a customer who was out here recently..so good to hear back how the customers feel about their experience..

Pretty good reason to think about coming our yourself..

Hi John,

Just a quick line to thank you most sincerely for a great time fishing with you in southern Portugal last week. I really enjoyed the trip and will definitely try to come back and fish with you again in the not too distant future.

The whole trip ran like clockwork from the moment you picked me up at Faro airport until the time you dropped me off a week later. The accommodation that you provided for me at the Hotel Colina dos Mouros in Silves was ideal. It was clean, comfortable and all the staff were extremely friendly. What more can you ask for ? Silves is a great place to stay and all the locals that I encountered were extremely kind, friendly and helpful and the local restaurants and cafes were excellent. An evening meal plus wine and coffees and all for less than 15 euros can’t be bad !!

The three stillwater venues that we fished during the week were all different and beautiful in their own ways. I particularly enjoyed fishing the lake further to the west in the nature reserve. The tackle and bait that you provided was first class and everywhere we fished everything happened that you said would happen. You can’t argue with that. Your expert knowledge of the fish and fishing in your area is without equal.

My main objective of the trip was to catch some Gypsy (or Andalucian) Barbel and I achieved that quite easily. Unfortunately, because of the prevailing weather and river conditions, we could not fish for the barbel in the rivers as originally planned but I thoroughly enjoyed catching them in the various stillwaters in the area. They were all in wonderful condition, beautifully marked and they all fought like tigers. Great sport.

The carp fishing was excellent too. It was good to be able to catch all the target species using different fishing methods and baits and next time I cover over to fish with you I plan to try some different techniques to catch them. Seeing you catch such large fish on light float tackle was a real eye opener. We caught plenty of fish during the week in what was without doubt difficult weather and water conditions so I can’t wait to come over and fish with you when the fishing is red hot !! Next time it would be great if we could get to target the barbel on the various rivers in your area. That would be ideal from my point of view.Sincere thanks once again John for a great trip. I really enjoyed myself and I will definitely be trying to book to come over and fish with you again, hopefully, in the not too distant future. My batteries are now fully recharged and I am ready for anything that life decides to throw at me.

All the very best, as always, and tight lines wherever you decide to fish,

As from November 2017 we have a lot of new laws that will affect our fishing. I have printed off some 40 pages of new law and the following is my best interpretation of these where they affect our normal fishing.

CLOSED SEASON - there is a closed season for Barbel mid March till mid June.There is no closed season for Carp this allows us to fish all year we just have to put back any Barbel we catch in the closed season.There is a closed season for Black Bass mid March till mid May only in still water not rivers.

NIGHT FISHING - Big changes here thanks to the Portuguese Carp Society.A number of the larger dams have been designated for night fishing for Carp anglers.The closest to the Algarve is the Roxo dam.The rules for smaller private waters are a little complicated but basically when the owner registers his dam there is a box on the form to tick which allowed night fishing.There are sensible night fishing rules that avoid you upsetting people trying to sleep like not fishing within 250 meters of a house or farm building.

PERMITS - We have to register as anglers in 2018 with the ICNF web site then in 2019 we can get our permit.For tourists they have to go on the ICNF web site and get there permit on line.

FISH WE ARE ASKED TO KILL - Unfortunately here we have big changes , I think its from a EU directive because they are talking about this in Spain as well.

CARP, PIKE, BLACK BASS, CATFISH AND ZANDER are not naturally occurring and they are going to try to eradicate them FROM RIVERS. In ALL waters Pike, Zander and Catfish must not be returned to the water. In rivers ALL Black Bass cannot be returned. In rivers except areas designated for sport fishing ( match fishing) no Carp can be returned.

This week I was joined for a few days by two experienced carp anglers from the UK, Gary Spencer of Premium Carp Fishing and his mate Martin from Holme Fen carp fishery.

This was a short trip targeting our Barbel. I took them to my favourite spot where a river enters a big dam, it took me years exploring in my 4 x 4 to find this spot and its producing some good fish Barbel to 13lbs and Carp over 20lbs.

Access is difficult and a 4 x 4 vital, but worth it as its very peaceful and we have never seen another angler there.

If you fancy trying this i can take small groups for around €600 each per week it was 20c this week in the sun not bad for December.

Gary is coming back in January for another go and I have others over in February so I will do a short report of what we catch, we had one fantastic day there last year with over 50 Barbel to over 9lbs.

This years fishing have been interesting and varied, red and golden snappers have been around all year, these we target whilst drifting for sharks. Sharks have been around most of the year and bigger than last year, but not as many, 5 or 6 on a good day, some very big Makos taken.

Highlight of the season for me was the arrival of big groups of giant Bluefin Tuna in June and July some over 1,000lbs my mate hooked one at 12am and lost it at 8.30pm estimated at 900lbs clearly seen at the surface, but the leader was cut off on the trim tab.

The Marlin came early in mid July of Tavira and stayed till 1st week in September when we lost them due to cold north winds.

Good numbers of White Marlin taken with multiple hook ups and a few big Blue Marlin taken.

Bottom fishing has been good fun with lots of different fish taken, we are out most weekends doing this and if you book early can often fit you in with locals fishing with us at a good price.

Freshwater fishing

We have had a very busy season with lots of clients coming to fish with me. Some have been over two times for a week each time. Early booking is vital as we have had to turn many down January and Feb is booked solid for 2018. Carp and Barbel have been our main targets, but a few clients have enjoyed fishing for American Black Bass, for this we fish from my boat on our big private water.

River fishing

After many years of exploring I can now offer these trips and have two places I like. one on the Guadiana river, the other on my secret river and we have good B and B close to the river only, 5 minutes away from this secluded river-please note you cannot target just Barbel as there are Carp (big ones) mixed in with them.,

Big Carp

My mates have had them to near 50lb this season, but i have not had time to fish for them.Please note that camping and night fishing is allowed on the smaller private waters and it will be allowed on designated sections of a few big waters, but we are awaiting details of just where, this is a new rule just come in, Rules for the closed season seem a bit confused with some police saying there is no closed season and others with different ideas, so when i have the new rules I will post them.

Hooray...the winter is finally over here in Portugal and we have great weather with temperatures into the mid 20c.

The freshwater fishing has been very good this last month with clients catching up to 20 barbel to 8lbs in a day with carp mixed in as well.

The blackbass are feeding and giving great sport on my private lakes.

The sea fishing is good with some big red snappers and lots of smaller bottom fish sharks starting soon and the big tuna come in June, thats the big ones over 500lbs.

If you fancy a days fishing when on holiday you need to book ASAP, as last minute bookings normally I cannot do, April May and June are all fully booked with a few dates available still for July and August, with September again fully booked.

So if you do fabcy some fishing whilst out here on holiday, or you fancy coming out for specific dates get in touch soon as the calendar is filling up fast for this season...

As normal at this time of year i do a yearly report on what we have been doing and on the fishing in general on the Algarve.

Freshwater fishing report for 2016 - I have completed the stocking of one of our private waters near Portimao and it now has the best mixed fishing in Portugal! The Barbel are of special interest with fish over 10lbs.

My friend has just been over fishing this water for 2 weeks and averaged 8 barbel per day, plus lots of other fish. It is now my quiet season for clients so I will be out 4 days per week catching more big fish to move to our bigger private lake, with a special interest in moving big barbel that go to 20lbs! This big lake has depths to over 50ft, but has big beds of weeds and lots of reeds and the barbel will thrive in there and breed for sure.

The BBC tv have just been over making a program on this water which you can see around June, this will show you just how nice this water is and with temperatures of 22c on January 17th, made a good film.

Gary Spencer has been over for his 3rd trip this year, he is a very experienced all round angler so its nice to know that I must be doing something right with clients like him and the BBC paying me to guide them.

Black bass fishing has been great on out private waters and i now have a nice boat with electric motor that i use to take clients there.

Sea fishing - The Marlin came very early this year again 1st seen of Tavira in July they stayed around till nearly November which is very late.The fish moved out of range for 2 weeks around end of August due to cold sea but came back in large numbers with catches of up to 15 Marlin a day reported, mainly white but a few very big blues.Some very big tuna have been taken over 500lbs and only this week in january I have a report of a monster Tuna seen jumping close to the shore,lots of smaller Tuna taken. Dorado -some very nice fish taken we nearly took the Algarve record with bigger fish seen.

Sharks - a great white was taken in a net only a few miles from our fishing area and my mates out Marlin fishing reported a great white circled the boat 6 times having a very close look at them!!!We had monster Hammerheads look at our tuna lures and had vast numbers of smaller blue sharks.Bottom fishing has been good with lots of red and golden snappers ,some big fish lost which have bitten off 45lb line and one rod bust-we still plan a night trip out after Swordfish if any are interested.

If you are out here in the Algarve or might be coming out and fancy some of this action fishing for any or all of these species get in touch and see what is available and can be bookedContact Us here

Start of the year found me continuing catching carp and barbel which I have safely moved to 1 of our private syndicate waters. We now have over 300 carp and 100 barbel moved to their new home - these fish have settled in nicely and are appearing in recent catches!

Chris has set a new Portuguese carp record with a nice fish of 54lb 8oz, this fish had put on 6lb since another angler had it last season, unfortunately 1 of our other 50lb fish was found dead last week, she will be missed as we have all had her out a few times over the years and seeing a fish we know so well die is a bit gut wrenching.

My barbel fishing is doing really well and I can confidently promote barbel fishing holidays, our best day saw +50 fish for 4 anglers from a new venue .

The quality of the barbel fishing we now have access to is evident from this image of one taken recently.

Our shark fishing started off incredibly well, in fact at mid season we were averaging 8 fishper trip, but things slowed down towards the end. Our bottom fishing has been really nice with red snappers to nearly 40lbs, big congers and lots of smaller fish on light tackle which is easy to use here as we have very little tide, a 2 oz lead is all we need.

The giant tuna turned up again, we had them jumping all around the boat one day big fish 400lb+. Best we know about landed was nearly 500lb taken on a marlin lure.

Marlin fishing looked like it was going to be good, but cold north winds drove them out and only a few were taken, lets hope this summer will see higher water temps and the return of white and blue Marlin and my favorite the Mako shark!

If you are out here in the Algarve or might be coming out and fancy some of this action fishing for any or all of these species get in touch and see what is available and can be bookedContact Us here

This year my personal fishing has been severely restricted due to the purchase of a old house on the Algarve which I am restoring. But I have still been able to get out with my clients and get in a few trips with friends.

Freshwater Fishing

We have not broken the Portuguese carp record again this year, but have come very close, we did catch the big fish again, but she had a bad abscess and had lost 5lbs my friend Tom treated this and its nice to report that she has been recaptured and put most of the weight back on and another fish from this water is putting weight on fast and is possibly over the record now.

My barbel fishing has taken off big time so watch this space. Hideaway lakes have closed for good so again we have no day ticket waters on the Algarve. Our private syndicate waters are the jewels in the Algarve crown, the big lake has produced fish to 26lbs and the dragon carp have come out at 20lbs, these are fantastic fighters! We are into a big stocking program there and are adding some very special fish, not saying what or how big they are, but there are going to be some very happy anglers in the coming season.... One of our smaller dams on the estate will be the best mixed fishery in portugal, I will do a report on this in May.

Sea Fishing

We have had a nice years shark fishing with fish to 150lbs, with lots of small sharks around. Sso for a bit of fun this year I have used a carp rod as an extra rod to target these small fish sharks from 10 to 30lbs! On a good carp rod this was great fun and had up to 8 on one day. The Marlin did not turn up this year in any numbers although one enterprising skipper traveled 50 miles out to sea from the east Algarve and found them and had 16 fish on one day. The big tuna were seen again, so this next year I plan to run one rod set up for them whilst shark fishing so lets see what happens.

I recently (April 2014) met up with John in Silves for an eagerly-awaited daytime fishing trip to his private syndicate carp/bass lakes (I’ve known John for some time and previously joined him on carp/barbel fishing trips in Portugal). We chose to fish the larger 35 acre lake for 3-4 days . . . John selected a corner swim with overhanging trees suited to float and feeder fishing (using sweetcorn, his special feeder mix and scopex boilies). I selected a swim 50m further away fishing at medium range close to a concrete water tower in the lake with combi-blowback rigs and tutti-fruitti boilies.

Despite a mixture of torrential rain, wind, cloud and sun, (Terry was a bit unfortunate with the weather on his short trip although he did get the sun cream out a few times - then only a week later and it was 25c all week: John) we managed to catch 6 sizable hard fighting carp (around the 15lb mark), and we also lost several others. John assured me that this was a below average session probably due to the changeable weather, and there are larger carp in the lakes waiting to be caught. John also caught a bass and terrapin, and I managed to hit the water tower twice!

The coarse fishing season has now closed here in Portugal, so a quick final report until the new season in June.

Our syndicate members have been out after big carp this last month with good success. Chris from Lagos had the big one out at 50lb 15oz, this is the new mirror record for Portugal, so well done to Chris.

Next out were Tom and Bradley again they did well with 12 runs in a few days fish to 34lbs.

From 2014 we are starting to do a yearly updates on the highlights for our years fishing so you can see what we are catching and not being like other fishing sites talking about what they caught 10 or in some cases 20 years ago.!!!!!

2013 Review.

1) The year started of in cracking style when I landed a very big carp for fellow tightlines guide tom this fish went 49lb 8oz and is the present mirror carp record for portugal. NOTE - its growing 5lb a year!

2) I then switched to sharks and had a few days out with expert local expat from Lagos and had a great time with no blank trips over the period. One young lad had a great fight on 30lb tackle with a 112lb Mako shark.

I have been shark fishing on the Algarve, Portugal for 20 years and after trying many different charter boats have given up on the charter skippers who are living on their past catches when things were very easy. I have had the pleasure of fishing with a local expert angler with his own boat who has not blanked on sharks for 3 1/2 years. OK its possibly not fair to compare with charter boats that go out most days, but still makes you think, especially when I know he was out catching when we had nothing on a charter boat fishing the same area for 5 days and he had 4 fish on one trip!!! With up to 17 fish on one great day last year.

So this year I put my 1st few clients with my new skipper and they had a great time with 3 or 4 fish per trip including mako shark to 112lbs and blue estimated at 125lbs. This skipper can only take the odd trip out due to pressure of existing commitments, so I needed a back up, so I asked a local man who has a tackle shop and his own boat if he was interested in trying shark fishing, he is very experienced bottom fishing angler, but had not fished for sharks seriously.

Tied up with a friend Dave to have trip out for some speciment carp fishing on one of our big carp fisheries and the pics tell the story, the carp were in a feeding mood and the fishing was great!

This is one of my venues that I escort visitors on my Carp Day Trips, if you fancy some then get in touch and book yourself a trip.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I have just had my 1st proper fishing trip to our new syndicate water. This was a full week trip where despite having a 48hr blank in the middle of the week I took 29 carp with 5 over 20lbs, best going 23lbs.

I recently took a client there for a day trip and he had 3 nice fish with one missed run, the fish were 2 common carp around 15lbs and a 18lb mirror.

This is the only fishery on the Algarve with this quality of fishing... and can only be fished with a member of the syndicate.

I have access to and regularly take people there for a days fishing trip or provide a full weeks fishing, camping there on the lake.

If you fancy either a days fishing whilst out here in the Algarve on holiday or wish to come out for a fishing holiday, thencontact me for more details - you can see more of whats on offer here in theEscorted Trips page.

It was not me who named this water, I first came across it over 20 years ago when I took out a video from my local tackle shop near Blackpool. The film, in 2 parts, was about a trip to Portugal by some of the England match team and Keith Arthur. Years later after I had set up Tightlines Portugal, here in the Algarve, the chap who made that film contacted me to guide him and his mates on thier annual fishing holiday to Portugal, and what a really nice group of anglers they all were.

I made a point of finding this lake when I came over to live and had a few sessions on it catching fish to 17lbs, but was looking for bigger fish, it took me years to find any better places and in the meantime this water changed hands and has been locked up for 15 years.

We are pleased to be able to report that we have linked up with Hideaway Lakes as their fishing guide and are actively involved in making this venue into the best day ticket water in Portugal .

This is a complex of 7 waters which would not only be of interest to anglers coming out for a weeks fishing, but also to people coming on holiday to the Algarve and who might like to enjoy a day or two's fishing as well as soaking up the sun on Portugal's super beaches. Its the perfect venue for both as it offers you the best chance of some great rod bending action with no long drives!

Some years ago I predicted that the lake at Alqueva Dam would have best fishing in Europe (see more about Alqueva here) - this update is to let you know that on trip there last week, that I was visited by the local police( GNR) who are also keen anglers, who showed me pictures of zander to 20lbs and carp near 30lbs, which they have taken on their time fishing Alqueva. There have been reports of carp to near 50lbs and in this weeks fishing magazine there is a picture of 13lb barbel taken by an angler from Alqueva, so its all starting to come together for a great future for coarse fishing the Portugal.

We have just managed to get in a short fishing trip at the end of the season for customers Mark Perkins and John Edwards. The Portuguese fishing season is very much in line with the old UK coarse closed season, with no coarse fishing again now until mid May.

The weather was gale force winds, but this did not effect the fishing. 1st day we arrived at the dam in the dark and put around 10kg of particle feed into a swim in preparation for next day. Following morning after a great evenings rest, we arrived around 9am after abreakfast to find the area full of feeding fish!

The sight was incredible, there were shoals with hundreds if not thousands of fish under the dam wall stretching for several hundred meters. The fishing was non stop all day with estimated 60+ fish to 12lbs. This continued till the end of this trip, fabulous fishing, shame it had to end.

At 11am today 16th Feb 2013 very shakily I slipped my net under what I could see was a very special fish for my fishing partner and fellow tightlines guide Tom.

It all started some 3 days earlier when we arrived at the water in glorious sunshine, typical of a Winter here in the Algarve, and started to locate the likely feeding areas for the carp and then set about baiting to attract any feeding fish. Our previous Winter trips had shown that there were always a group of large carp willing to feed throughout the Winter on this particular water.

To facilitate a longer session, I was in my transit van from which i have modified to allow me to have a mobile base from which to operate and to provide plenty of room for lots of gear. My mate and fishing partner Tom had come over in his Hymer camper with enough gear to stock a tackle shop, which he did have at one time.

Once we had located the likeliest spot out was went the Viper baitboat with our particle mix which was laced with tuna in oil, aniseed, chilly, salt and our secret additives and hook baits. With the help of the Viper's fishfinder Tom accurately dropped his bait in a spot in 6ft of water, just short of a bed of reeds around 180 yards across the bay we were fishing and the trap was set.

Any regular visitors may remember that last year I mentioned receiving a request for help from a ex-pat Brit, Paul Golds, he had since first coming out really tried very hard to catch some good fish, but could not get past 17lbs which for years was the same for myself.

It took me over 10 years exploring, driving thousands of miles and fishing for several months every year to find a hand full of waters that have fish in over 20lbs. Well all I have to do was direct Paul to a couple of likely waters that I take my guests to and he applied his own approach to fishing these and has really had a terrific season.

I could say he has ripped them apart taking several 40lb + fish amongst a great run of quality fish.

The images above are just a sample of Paul's great fish and if you fancy coming out and having a crack at such quality fish in great locations and weather, when the weather is cold and bleak in the UK (November to March) then get in touch with me to find out what opportunities there here big carp fishing in the Algarve, Portugal.

With all the stress of the year behind us, the 'boss' says its OK as its 27th of December to get the rods out and I have been out fishing on a local big fish water.

My fishing mate Tom had this nice 26lb fish at 8am, followed by 2 smaller doubles in the afternoon - the weather was incredible for Winter with temperatures in the sun of 30c water temperature was 11c.

Something we wonder more anglers don't take advantage of and get out here for some great fishing in warm Winter conditions from November through to our close season in March. Take a look at our catches for the Winter over the last few seasons to see what you have been missing. Trust me the fish are getting bigger every season.

Just home from trip to our local river seeking out the monsters we have reported on losing in some of my previous reports in 2011.

We have uprated our gear to 45lb braid mainline and 35lb hooklinks - this probably sounds very strong, but we have all hooked and lost some very big fish on many of these trips, when fishing with regular specimen tackle. Extremely powerful fish that we could not extract on 25lb line.

We have found these fish are across the river close to some BIG snags - on this trip we did not hook any of these particular monsters, but had carp out into doubles, best 18lb 4oz, these fish were in beautiful condition, having probably never seen a hook in their lives.

These fish were no problem to extract from the area, so the jury is still out on what we have been losing 30lb+ carp or 20lb+ barbel? Specimens of which we have seen in the area in the past.

Had a call from Paul Golds who had phoned to me ask where he could catch some carp over 20lbs in Portugal - now I wouldn't normally provide information about where I take my customers as it has cost me thousands of pounds in fuel and 18 years hard work looking / fishing around the Algarve, South of Portugal.

But as a local Paul had already been trying hard to find bigger fish on his own, but as I have found, many of the more accessible waters currently only have carp to around 17-18lbs and having been catching these, he was looking for something bigger.He is also a good bass angler as well, taking fish to 14lbs on the west coast of the Algarve.

Joy: Paul had a one day trip to the small water I recommended and in poor weather had 3 good runs on single day trip in winter, not to be sniffed at, resulting in this nice fish of 26lbs which is just average for this water.

Despair: - one other fish felt very good but came off during playing it to the net!.

September 2011 - went on a fully escorted trip with John fishing dams in the Alentejo region of Portugal, staying on a B&B basis in a small friendly town that couldn't speak a word of English - all you need to know is Cerveja pronounced cervaisa (beer), Toasta Mista (Mixed Toasted Sandwich) for breakfast and the best meal Porco Preto (Black Pig).

John picked me up outside Faro airport in his minibus and arranged my fishing licence. The town had a large supermarket, several cheap restaurants with good food and drink, and a number of cafe/bars, several of which were open to the early hours (including one opposite the hotel). The accommodation was top notch for such a small town and right in the centre.

The old record for carp with people fishing with Tightlines-Portugal was a great 41lb common by Dave - today Tom, a regular, has just broke this record with a new pb and new lake record mirror carp of 41lb 8oz.

The water has been a regular venue for this Autumn, Tom moved into the swim vacated by Terry on his last trip - so thanks to Terry for baiting up the swim for us. Using a baitboat Tom put down a bed of hemp and fished monster crab boilies over it. Tom had just a few blips on his alarms during the morning, so tried a slightly different rig and almost immediately had a good run from an obviously good fish.

The fight was stressful as we were sure he was connected to a really big fish and sure enough it turned out to be a new lake record - he had no real problem playing this fish, so whatever there is in this water that has broken many people up on heavier gear we have no idea. But watch this space, we will find the answer, perhaps set a new record in the bargain!

How to book your holiday:

If you wish to get more info on any of our trips then use our online booking einquiry page and tell us what type of fishing you want, how many will be coming, and when. We will then contact you to confirm your dates before you start booking flights and insurances etc. This gives us an opportunity to fine tune your trip and cater for your personal needs.

We look forward to hearing from you and organising a full holidy trip out to the Algarve or catering for you on a day out whilst out here on a family holiday.